Combined cane and camera-support.



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(Application filed Dec. 7, 1900,)

(No Model.)

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Nrran STATES ATENT ROBERT WVILLIAM SHIPWAY, OF OHISWIGK, ENGLAND.

COMBINED CANE AND CAMERA-SUPPORT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 673,482, dated May '7, 1901.

Application filed December '7, 1900. Serial No. 89,014. (No modeLI To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ROBERT WILLIAM SHIP- WAY, a subject of the Queen of England, residing at Grove House, Chiswick, in the county of Middlesex, England, have invented an Improved Combined Walking-Stick and Camera- Support, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a combined walking-stick and camera-support, and has for its object to produce a walking-stick or umbrella which shall, besides its utility as such, be adapted for ready utilization as a photographic-camera stand or support.

To this end the invention consists in the novel details of improvement and combination of parts hereinafter more particularly described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof, wherein- Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a walking-stick, partly broken away, showing my improved camera-support. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a walking-stick, partly broken away, showing the support in an extended position with the camera attached; and Fig. 3 is an enlarged view showing the camerasupport detached from the walking-stick.

Similar letters of reference denote like parts in all the figures.

The apparatus forming the subject of this invention consists of a walking-stick or the central stick of an umbrella (hereinafter referred to as the stick) and of asupportfora photographic camera (hereinafter referred to as the support) to be used in connection with the stick,the stick and supportcombined formingaconvenient stand foraphotographic camera when in use for taking photographs and the support being arranged to pack inside the stick when not in use as a camerastand for convenience of transport, the stick and support being specially designed and constructed, as hereinafter set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, A indicates a walking-stick or cane,which may be of wood, metal, or other substance commonly used for this purpose and which should be of sufficient strength and substance to contain the pocket or chamber, hereinafter described, without being unduly weakened. The handle of the stick may be of any desired shape and material suitable for stick-handles, provided it is of sufficient strength and substance; but I prefer to use a stick such as a cane or bamboo rod, having a handle formed in one piece with the rest of the stick, a crook being the most convenient form. In the body of the stick A, I form a chamber or pocket B, sufficiently large to conveniently contain and conceal the support 0, which lies loosely in the chamber when the stick is not in use as a camera-stand, and by making the chamber B a little longer than the support the chamber may be also made to contain a spike e, adapted to screw into the ferrule of the stick and facilitate its insertion into the ground (to give additional steadiness to the stick when in use as a camera-stand) or other small object. The chamber B has an orifice at the top of the stick or (where the handle of the stick curves over, as in a stick with a crook-shaped handle) at the top of the straight portion of the stick, so that the support 0 can he slipped easily into the stick, and I prefer to cover such orifice with a removable stopper or a hinged cover a, furnished with a catch, by which it can be conveniently closed when the stick is not being used as a camera-stand, but which when the stick is so used does not impede the free entrance and exit of the support to or from the chamber.

The support 0 is a rod of sufficient substance to give rigidity and not too thick to lie easily 'in the chamber or pocket in the stick and of such length as, in combination with the stick, to form a stand of suitable height for a photographic camera while used for taking photographs. One end of the rod 0 is so formed that it can be readily attached to and detached from the base of the photographic camera. I prefer to make the attachment by forming a screw f on the end of the support 0 to screw into a hole in the base of the camera P, as shown in Fig. 2; but any simple device which does not necessitate the enlargement of the support beyond the capacity of the chamber to receive it when not in use will do. In order that the support 0 when it is attached at one end to the camera and the other end is placed in the pocket or chamber B in the stick .may not drop to the bottom of the chamber, but project or extend above the top of the stick and form a camerastand of sufficient height, I form in the support or rod C, at a convenient distance from the end not attached to the camera, two slots (1, each containing an arm 0, having one end hinged, as at g, to the support 0 and the other end free, (the end of the arm next to the end of the support fitted for attachment to the camera being the hinged end,) the slot and arm being so formed that the arm may be folded entirely into the slot and permit the support or rod C to be entirely inside the chamber B in the stick, or when it is desired to use the support 0 in connection with a photographic cam era the two arms may be opened out by inserting the fingernail in a nick under the free end of each arm and raising the arm on the hinge, so as to project from the slots, and being together longer than the diameter of the chamber B and prevented by the substance of the support 0 above the slots from opening, wider than at right angles to the support will when the unattached end of the support is dropped into the orifice of the chamber rest on such orifice and prevent the support from dropping to the bottom thereof.

The height of the combined apparatus when in use may be such as the ownerof the camera finds convenient. I prefer a stick about three feet long and a support a little less than a foot long, of which about two-thirds of the length projects above the orifice of the chamber or pocket B when the combined apparatus is used as a camera-stand.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letter Patent, 15-- The combination of the walking-stick A, having the pocket B therein, with the rod 0 adapted to be concealed within said pocket when the walking-stick is used as such and to be projected from the pocket and supported therein when the stick is used as acamerastand, the projecting endf of the rod C being adapted to support a camera, and with the hinged armsc upon said rod 0 adapted to sustain the same in its extended position, substantially as described.

ROBERT WILLIAM SHIPWAY.

Witnesses:

JOHN FRANCIS HEAD, ROBERT LISTER MUsGRAvE. 

